Another interesting development in the case of who whacked the Don? Dean let the carpet fall back into place and looked up at his brother. "Well?"

"I'd have to cross-reference the symbol, but I'm sure I've seen it before…" Sam frowned, his forehead creased. Dean, still crouched on the floor, scowled at the carpet before looking up at the All Seeing Eye. Someone was playing with the big kids. "I think…" Sam walked in a circle, looking up at the Eye. "Someone is trying to summon a demon."

"Gee whiz, never saw that one coming."

"-And they were trying to use the All Seeing Eye to focus the power here." Sam pointed to the floor.

"The human ashes?"

He shrugged. "No idea." He confessed. "If I didn't know any better I'd say someone was playing tricks."

Playing tricks-

Dean shook his head. I'm getting a weird echo in here.

"I can't think of any ritual that would call for two sacrifices, and if there is ashes involved, it would normally have to be mixed with fresh blood."

Fresh blood-

Unconsciously Dean rubbed at his temple. Sam looked over to him curiously. His brother had been acting weirder than usual lately. There was some sort of dark history with Lawson; he woke up in the middle of the night screaming for mercy from invisible assailants, and, worse of all, he refused to tell his brother anything of what was going on.

Sometimes, when Dean looked at him like he was doing right now, Sam wanted to seize him by the shoulders and shake him until the truth came out.

Maybe he's heading for a breakdown. Maybe I'm heading for a breakdown.

There's an optimistic thought for you.

"Y…yeah." Dean cleared his throat. Started again. "It's too cut-and-dried. Like kids bringing out the ouija board at a slumber party."

"What are you thinking?"

Another rub at the forehead, like it was hurting him somehow. "I don't know. Like, maybe someone wanted to lure someone else in to be the sacrifice or something."

"What, a trap? A trap for who?"

Who…

Kill him. Dean looked up at Sam. Kill him, the voice insisted. He's right there. Get him. The whisper seemed to ooze into the corners of his mind, slowly seeping into every crevice. All colour seemed to bleed out of his vision, leaving him looking out at the world like it was a black-and-white television.

"Dean?" His little brother, sounding so far away.

Stay where you are. Another voice, with a different authority than the first. No less menacing.

Kill him!

Stay.

Kill him. I COMMAND IT!

Spots exploded in front of his eyes, and he rocked back against the wall. "Something's wrong." Dean said. Or maybe he only thought he said it. The room darkened, until the only thing left visible was the All Seeing Eye staring down at him, like a vulture waiting for him to drop dead so it could pick his bones clean.

The last thing Dean saw was the frightened look on Sam's face as his brother lunged across the room to catch him as he fell.

The church was back.

Great.

Dean looked around his dreamland. Something was wrong. Something was different. The always-present light that had kept the darkness at bay was gone. The nightmare was becoming real.

If it wasn't already.

"Shortbus."

The word was playfully drawn out and almost affectionate. Dean's face twisted into a grimace. "Oh no." He said. "You too?"

"Shocking, huh?" Ruby the Demon stood there in all her glory, the characteristic smirk twisting her lips.

"Why are you in my hallucination? I don't even like you."

Ruby mimed being shot in the heart, and swooned on the spot. "Ooh, I'm hurt. I'd forgotten how you could sling 'em." She straightened up, hands on her hips. "Pull your head out of your ass for a second, you moron, and you might realise that we're trying to tell you something here."

"Tell me what?"

"Uh uh." The demon waggled her finger. "Now that's cheating."

Dean frowned. "At least give me a hint of what the hell is going on."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," She examined the fingernails on one hand. "They're all inside your head."

"Who is?"

"Lilith, for one. She's been subconsciously influencing people for years." Ruby replied in an offhand way. "I suspect probably Belial is too, to try and counter Lilith's power. There was someone else." She frowned with distaste. "But he's gone now. Lilith and Belial are pulling faces from your past and future to try and spook you. Condemned souls that you were and are unable to save."

"Then what the hell are you doing here for? You were already screwed when we met."

Ruby laughed. "No, I'm not much of one for the whole subliminal messages thing. I just hitched a ride in here." She looked around herself disdainfully. "Inside. Your head. Probably not the best of ideas as ideas go. Man, you are one sick dude."

"What for?"

"To talk. And the only way to get through your thick skull was to… literally go through your thick skull."

"Okay, ew on so many levels." Dean scowled. "You're Sam's demon-on-a-leash. Go bug the crap out of him."

Ruby frowned. "It's too dangerous." She said. "I'd be found out before I could tell anyone anything. I can do a lotta things, but I still have to play by the rules. I ain't that special."

"But I don't get it. Why me?"

Ruby's smile was twisted. "Why, Dean. Haven't you ever wondered? There was only one other man in all history that rose from the grave. In fact, they gave him his own holiday because of it."

"What happened to you, Ruby? You were sort-of on our side once. Whose side are you on now?"

"My side." Ruby said. "I've always been on my side. You got to look out for number one, after all."

"Ruby, just-" Dean stopped himself. If he pissed her off, she'd be even less inclined to help him. "Just… tell me what's going on. Please." For a moment he thought she was just going to flip him off again, before she frowned. There was a little horror in her disgusted expression.

"Oh." She said. "You don't know."

"That's why I'm asking you what's going on!"

Ruby looked at him. Her old, old eyes burned holes through him. The knowledge and the sadness in them was infinite. "There is a demon." She said. "His name is Samael. He's old. Older than anything else I've ever even heard of. He fought in the War. A war of demons and angels and magic, and then he disappeared. No one ever saw him again. It all happened so long ago that I thought it was a myth."

"Demons have myths?"

"Doesn't everyone?" She replied, without her usual venom. "But now he's coming back, and he's going to take down everyone that betrayed him."

"That's bad? He's doing our job for us."

"This war was against Hell." Ruby said. "And during it, the 66 seals were created. The seals were made to imprison Lucifer until the End of Days."

The seals.

"What has that got to do with this Samael?"

"Two angels and two demons of extraordinary talents formed a truce to combat Samael. You've probably heard of them. They've gone down in history as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." She said. "But even with their powers combined, they could not defeat him completely. So instead they imprisoned him. They made him the last of the 66 seals to be broken."

"So when he escapes, Lucifer is free?"

"If only." She smiled darkly.

"I don't like that look. That's not a good look." Dean frowned. "What's the deal?"

"Some say that Lucifer was only a figurehead. That the real power lay behind Samael. And when Samael walks free, that's only because he has already killed Lucifer." She said. "Lilith wanted to bring Lucifer back so chaos could reign. She didn't realise until the others were broken that Samael was the last seal and since the enchantments holding him were weakened, he's decided to break out for himself. Looks like she'll be getting more than she bargained for."

"Oh." Dean didn't know what else to say. What else do you say? This bad boy was so nasty he could make the Devil cry. He was going to bump off Satan, then fillet Lilith, presumably go after the Four Horsemen, and then what? What would an all-powerful demon king do next? Hell? Heaven?

"Oh." Ruby agreed. She looked up. Her face was creased in worry. "They've found me. Gotta fly."

"Wait! What has this got to do with my brother?"

Ruby looked at him, deadly serious. "Because he's the wonder boy we've all been waiting for." She said. "Samael knows that. And now the train is pulling into the station."

Dean felt sick. "He's going to… use Sam as a host?"

"Use up his energy so he can reach through to this dimension." Ruby said. "I can't tell Sam that because you know what he gets like when he hears bad news. All filled with angst and crap. I don't think I could bear another talk about his 'evil' destiny."

He knew what she meant. "How do we stop him?"

"I wish I knew." Ruby replied softly, almost gently. "The Four Horsemen and the lords of Hell have been trying to destroy Samael for a millennia, and they still haven't figured out a way. I don't know what the angels have been doing, but if this demon's still walking, it's a safe bet that they never figured anything out either. I'm sorry." She sounded genuinely apologetic. "This time you're both going to get torn apart."

And then Ruby was gone. The church was gone, and Dean was back in the real world, gulping down air like a drowning man.

Her mother would have derided her for being disgusting, but Jo spat over her shoulder for luck like her father always used to do. She looked across the highway back up at the skeezy motel, hardly believing that she was back here, but she had this overwhelming feeling that there was something left she had to do.

She stuck her hand into her jeans and balled her fist around the mojo bag. It contained her photo, some herbs, a long white feather she'd found on the sidewalk and a few other things. "I hope you're right about this, Bobby." She whispered.

Sariel had decided that the world wasn't worth saving. Castiel saw possibilities that many others of his kind could not or would not see, and Elijah seemed the proverbial fence-sitter. If these were the legendary warriors, those who salvaged people's souls, then the earth was in for a very grave time indeed.

She had seen inside his mind, this Angel Sariel. She saw it and finally understood. Not the meaning of life crap, but other things, more relevant things. But most of all, she now knew the angels mission.

Samael was an ancient evil. He leeched his power from the black rage that lurked in the bottom of the heart of man, and therefore he was always there, omnipresent, waiting. They all thought he had perished years ago.

But now he was coming back. Deadlier than ever. Along with the Black Eden.

The chaos of the storm.

She set one foot into the street and was about to step off the sidewalk when a car rocketed around the corner. Jo stepped back hurriedly to avoid being run down. The driver was leaning out the window, and screamed at her as the vehicle squealed past.

"Remove head from backside and then walk, dumb bitch!"

Jo was too shocked to shout back a witty reply.

People were going nuts all around her.

"It's mine! I saw it first!"

"Don't you trash-talk me, you filthy whore!"

"Get the hell away from me before I tear something off you'll need later, you perv!"

"Dear God," Jo whispered, slowly walking in a wide circle. Kids smashed the windows of an electronics store before proceeding to loot the place. Motorists screamed at each other in the street. A Mack truck careened down the road before smashing into the empty school. The man who owned the gun dealership was taking pot-shots at anyone that came too close to his storefront.

It was almost impossible not to get splashed with blood.

And all across town there were people huddled inside their houses, scared for their lives, staring out at the mayhem with terrified eyes. The angel charm that sat heavily in Jo's pocket seemed to have made her invisible to this demonic plague as well as hidden her from the angels.

Croatoan.

Jo made a wild dash across the road, dodging between out-of control cars and trucks. "Castiel!" She shouted as she knocked back the front door of the motel.

The manager had slit his wrists and was stretched out on the front counter. Jo covered her mouth but didn't stop. She bounded up the stairs, but halfway up something grabbed her foot and brought her crashing down again.

It was a man, his hands cut open and bleeding. Jo recognised him as someone who had been staying at the motel prior to her arrival. His eyes were wide and mad, and he tightly grasped a long shard of jaggared glass. "Join us in Eden," he said, and brought his makeshift knife slashing down.

Jo's foot caught him under the chin and sent him tumbling all the way back down the stairs where he collapsed and was still. "I'm sorry. Jesus, I'm so, so sorry." Filled with remorse and anger and frustration, she continued her frantic climb to the Angel Castiel.

"Cas-" She flung open the door of the room they had been using to retain some semblance of normality and almost promptly fell down. The floor was red and slick and Jo's stomach did another uncomfortable flop.

"Is anyone here?" It was almost a whisper, and she walked further into the room, taking care not to slip on the floor. Surely no one could survive after loosing that much blood, right?

There was heavy breathing coming from the bathroom. Jo slowly pushed open the door.

There was a naked man sitting on the rim on the bathtub, a towel draped around his shoulders. The towel was stained red and he seemed to be in pain, so Jo crept quietly into the room. "Hello." She said cautiously. "Are you alright?"

"Perfectly." He hissed. "It is not as if this doesn't happen to me everyday."

"Okay! Jeez, just seeing if I could do anything."

"Wait, I apologise." He looked up. His eyes narrowed as he looked her up and down. "Joanna? You appear different somehow." He carefully rose to his feet, his movements slow and deliberate.

The polite and vaguely archaic usage of the English language was familiar. She met his eyes. They were a different colour, a different shape, but right at the bottom she could still see that pure goodness shining like a beacon.

"Castiel? Is that you?" Jo was aghast. "What happened to you?"

The man let the towel slip to bunch around his waist and turned his back on her. Two angry-looking stripes of scar tissue that ran parallel to either side of his spine glared back at her, from his shoulder blades to his hips. Jo was at once filled with wonder and outrage at what must have been ripped from his back to leave those marks.

"I was arrogant." He burst out. "I believed that I might be able to handle Sariel and his outbursts."

"I'm thinking that his outbursts got the better of you?" Jo guessed.

"I had not believed that he had the power to cast me down."

Oh my God, he's a fallen angel. "I might look a bit different now you have new eyes."

"Yes, that may be true." He confessed.

"Come on." She said. "We've got work to do." She looked whimsical for a moment. "We'll have to find you some pants first,"

Castiel looked concerned. "We have no hope of defeating Sariel now." Jo ignored the implications in the tone. Now that I'm a human and all.

"It's not Sariel I'm worried about." Jo said. Castiel's eyes grew even more worried.

"Samael?" It was almost amusing, how the words would come out of him all regal and serious the one moment, and then squeaking and high the next. It was like a teenage boy adjusting to puberty. "We will be destroyed!"

"That's the thing about humans." Jo said. "We'll fight the hardest when it looks like we're beat."

"We cannot follow Sariel, but I know where he will be."

"So do I." Jo said dryly. "And we've got to beat him there."

"Castiel?"

"Yes?"

"What happened to you? I mean the other you, what you looked like when you met me."

"His name is Lindsay Weaver, a lawyer from Miami. He offered himself to be used however God saw fit, to salvage his soul from evil. When my awareness was separated from his, he would have been returned to his home and his family, with no memory of his time with me."

"And he could go bad again."

"That is his choice."

"You're all very trusting, aren't you?"

"Except when it comes to our own kind. So many evils of the past have been brought about by our own brothers and sisters that we have learnt to always be suspicious of each other, even more so than of you humans."

"Cas, you're human now, too." Jo said gently. "It isn't 'you' anymore. You're in the 'we'."

He was silent.

The carpark was in chaos. Jo looked around herself, shrugged, and proceeded to break into the nearest car that hadn't been stripped. "Get in." She said to her companion.

As soon as they were away from the craziness of the town, Jo gunned it, hoping to outrun all the madness, leave it all behind her. Tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and laugh about all this. Laugh. Her hands clenched around the steering wheel were starting to shake, and Jo realised that she was beginning to panic.

I can do this. I can.

Just then she saw the shadow fall over the car, and jerked the wheel to the side.

"Stop!"

Jo stood on the brake, sending the car into a spin that threatened to throw them off the road. Finally they stopped spinning and the car rocked gently to a stop in the gravel. Jo pushed her hair out of her eyes while Castiel gripped the dash grimly, his knuckles white from the strain of holding on and his eyes wide.

"What the hell was that?" Jo unclasped her seatbelt and lent out her door, peering back down the way they had came, looking for the creature that had almost sent them careening to a fiery death.

What she saw astounded her. "Is that idiot riding a horse?" She demanded. There was no answer.

His silence and her own stubbornness meant that it took a moment for Jo to comprehend what she had seen. When she did, her mouth dropped open and she almost fell to her knees in the gravel.

"Oh. Oh my."

The Four Horsemen had come home.

"The End of Days has come." Castiel whispered.